Monthly Archives: January 2019

Drone Harmony was chosen to be part of the 5th cohort of the ESA Business Incubator Switzerland (ESA BIC CH). This achievement will allow Drone Harmony to enrich its data-driven mission planning platform with global sources of satellite data.Luzern, Switzerland – February 2019The value that an organization derives from digitalization is predicated on the quality of data it can generate about the business and how easily it can feed it into the digital workflow. In the commercial inspection space, drones are the new eyes in the sky that hold the potential to replace old manual methods with new digital workflows. Drone Harmony is developing the tools to turn drones from mere eyes in the sky to effective automated data collection tools that drive the modern digital workflows and enable their full-scale deployment.

Drone Harmony’s acceptance to ESA BIC CH represents both a confirmation Drone Harmony’s vision and an important milestone in the development of its’ data-driven data acquisition platform. Satellite data is the most comprehensive and accurate global source of geospatial data and as such a perfect resource to enable autonomous drone mission planning and flight.

Two important globally available sources of data originating from satellites are high-resolution imagery and digital elevation models (surface models that represent the heights of points in space and are necessary for high accuracy mapping). These sources of data are imperative for automating drone operations in geographic regions where maps are outdated, and the terrain is complex.

In the context of the incubation, Drone Harmony will integrate high-quality sources of satellite data into the Drone Harmony mission planning platform. This development will be aligned with the upcoming release of web-based mission planning application, that will enable new forms of

integrations and handling of higher volumes of data.

Martin Fuchsberger, CEO of Drone Harmony commented: “We see our acceptance to the ESA BIC CH as confirmation of our vision of creating fully autonomous drone-based inspection workflows. We are excited about the opportunity that this incubation holds for both our company and our technology. The importance of satellite data for automation of drone operations is unquestioned, and now we have the opportunity to pursue the integration of such data sources with expert advice and support from leading organizations in the space industry.”

Drone Harmony was founded in 2016 by a team of problem solvers with a passion for drones, software and automation. From the very early days, Drone Harmony have set out to tackle the mathematical and engineering challenges of enabling cost-effective deployment of drone technology in industries, where existing technologies were unable to deliver. By now, Drone Harmony’s customers have logged more than 50,000 autonomous flights in 6 continents and dozens of use cases.

Word is reaching us of large numbers of folks being let go at Intels main drone manufacturer Ascending Technologies in Germany at the end of 2018.

If true that’s very sad as Asctec really have been pioneers in the drone space.

Intel has form in this regard, they hired and fired at Yuneec USA back in 2017.

Not only did they bring their Falcon 8 industrial inspection platform to the party but the shooting stars light show Asctec was unique in having a camera on a multirotor that could point up. Very handy for inspection the underside of things like bridges and bits of oil rigs.

Is this the end of product development from the Intel nee Asctec team?

In this video, the South Australian Bight National Marine Park is using drones to survey endangered Australian sea lions, who live and breed on sheer cliff faces and rock ledges. Hunted to the verge of extinction, the endangered Australian sea lions refuge in the waters of the Great Australian Bight, with about 80% of the population found there. To feed, the Australian sea lion dives deep, descending to the seafloor to prey on bottom dwelling fish, squid, rock lobster and even small sharks and rays. The waters here support important feeding grounds, and sea lions travel hundreds of kilometers and swim up to five days without rest to get the marine park. Back on the coast, they seek broad flat areas to rest, give birth and raise their young.

Some of these colonies can be found at the base of the Bunda Cliffs and since the 1990s, seasonal breeding surveys have been undertaken by South Australian Research and Development Institute to track their population health. Until recently, these surveys have relied on binoculars, cameras and a lot of patience. However, in 2017 drones were introduced! Using drones increases accuracy and provides much bigger survey capacity.

Take a look at this video of the recent survey season to find out more.

Since our founding 13 years ago, DJI has been a company that emphasizes honesty and integrity in our operations. We strongly believe that upholding these values is a critical element in DJI’s long-term development.

We have been disappointed to learn that not all employees have upheld these goals. As DJI embarked on a management reform effort last year, we discovered problems that had evolved during our period of high growth.

Uncovering inefficient and ineffective management processes is extremely important for DJI to continue pursuing its success. This is an imperative for our company, and indeed for any company.

Unfortunately, DJI has discovered instances of cost inefficiency, purchasing manipulations and outright theft. We cannot ignore these issues. Indeed, for the sake of the vast majority of our employees who work hard and honestly, we need to uncover and eliminate these problems.

We also understand that strong management is the key to setting honorable expectations for our employees. While mature companies have established the training, controls and management protocols to limit these issues, DJI has in the past emphasized corporate growth over new internal processes.

In fact, taking greater control over internal processes is key to ensuring companies can continue to innovate and grow. Eliminating factors that artificially raise costs may be painful at first, but doing so clears the path for a company to operate at maximum efficiency and reach its full potential while upholding high ethical standards.

DJI will now take a leading role in developing clear policies, procedures and expectations to address corner-cutting and employee theft. We call on more companies to take similar steps.

As DJI has taken action to address these issues, we have seen rumors, speculation and incorrect information reported publicly. While we thank the media for treating this issue with the respect it deserves, we do not publicly discuss details of our employee discipline process.

We urge the media to pay close attention to the facts we have presented. DJI and its hardworking, honest employees are focused on growing our business by creating products that improve the world, and our efforts to eliminate inefficiencies and losses will help all of us continue to achieve this goal.

It provides collision avoidance, GPS-denied flight, advanced autonomy and SLAM-based LiDAR mapping. This allows a Hovermap-enabled drone to be deployed in challenging GPS-denied environments, to collect 3D and other data which was previously impossible to collect. This new data in turn leads to new insights.

“Hovermap is the first drone payload of its kind, using LiDAR to provide both mapping and autonomy functions. It allows drones to fly autonomously even in GPS-denied environments to collect valuable data that was not previously possible. This provides a step change in the data collection possibilities for Mining, Energy, Construction, Asset Management and many more”.

“There is increasing demand for these industries to digitise and remotely inspect their assets but access to hazardous areas and the lack of GPS has been a limiting factor until now. Hovermap’s unique capabilities are helping to overcome these hurdles”, says Dr Hrabar.

Hovermap keeps the drone a safe distance from assets while mapping them in great detail. Bridges, telecom towers, power transmission towers and industrial plant interiors are just a few examples that can now be mapped and inspected safely.

In the underground mining industry, Hovermap allows the mapping of hazardous inaccessible areas such as stopes and ore passes.

According to Dr Hrabar, “sending in a Hovermap-enabled drone to autonomously map and explore these areas keeps the surveyors safe and provides data at unprecedented resolution and quality. This data provides new valuable insights, leading to productivity gains and increased safety from better understanding of the geology”.

The commercial launch comes after more than five years of R&D by world-leading researchers in drone autonomy and SLAM-based LiDAR mapping, as well as extensive testing over the last 18 months by early adopters in the US, Canada, Australia, China and Japan.

Matt MacKinnon of Canadian-based UAS Inc. explains: “We’ve been using Hovermap to fly into inaccessible areas of underground mines to map them. We’ve conducted more than 60 commercial flights in 12 mines, capturing extremely valuable data for our clients without putting humans at risk. Hovermap truly is a game-changer for underground mining and other GPS-denied environments”.

Mr Shinji Inaba, president of Mirukuru Co., said that “they are proud to have been an early adopter of Hovermap since April 2017 and they are now an Emesent distributor in Japan”.

“We’ve been testing and demonstrating Hovermap extensively to enterprise customers in energy, construction, telecom, rail and road, forestry etc. Hovermap’s unique features have led to significant demand and we’re excited to be fulfilling our first purchase orders now that Hovermap is commercially available”, says Mr Inaba.

The flight was conducted using the Loughborough-based fuel cell engineering Company’s lightweight 650W Fuel Cell Power Module (FCPM) and is believed to be the longest flight time of its kind. MetaVista used 390g of liquid hydrogen in a specially designed 6L cylinder.

MetaVista has developed the ultra-light weight liquid hydrogen storage tank to specifically work with Intelligent Energy’s FCPM. The MetaVista liquid hydrogen system coupled with the Intelligent Energy 650W FCPM system provides a significant 1865Wh/kg energy density.

David Woolhouse, CEO at Intelligent Energy, said: “We have been focussed for some time on developing lightweight, robust fuel cell power modules for UAVs that can offer commercial users something that batteries simply cannot – significantly longer flight time. We are pleased to have worked with MetaVista on this test flight, which has demonstrated that liquid hydrogen can increase that flight time further still when compared to compressed hydrogen – three times longer! This is a real game changer for commercial users who need longer in the air. We look forward to seeing MetaVista develop their product commercially over the coming months.”

Dr. Jong Baik, MetaVista Inc. CEO, commented: “Our aim was to significantly increase the flight time for commercial UAV operators. Using Intelligent Energy’s lightweight Fuel Cell Power Module we have been able to achieve this. The Intelligent Energy team has worked closely with us and we are delighted to be working with them. Together with our liquid hydrogen production and storage expertise, it has proved to be a successful partnership.”

Fuel cells are an ideal power choice for commercial and military UAVs as they can offer significantly longer flight times when compared to traditional batteries.

Intelligent Energy has products which are suitable for UAVs in the 5-20kg weight range currently available to the commercial UAV market. Its products will be on display at upcoming UAV shows; Japan Drone 13-15 March in Chiba-City, near Tokyo,

According to Rotor and Wing, Jaunt Air Mobility has bought into the Carter Copter concept and are looking into its feasibility as an Uber air taxi.

In April 2017, Carter Aviation partnered with Mooney International Corporation to develop an eVTOL.

Carter use’s it’s Slowed-Rotor/Compound (SR/C™) technology.

In their own words.

It couples the speed, range and efficiency of an airplane with the vertical takeoff and landing capability of a helicopter along with the unparalleled safety of a high inertia rotor. Whether incorporated into a jump takeoff configuration or a powered rotor variant with continuous hover capability, SR/C technology offers extraordinary cruise efficiencies and quiet operation. Slowing the rotor in flight is the key to this game-changing technology. Operating at 1/3 the usual rpm reduces rotor drag by over a factor of 5. This translates to overall fuel efficiencies that have been validated through flight testing that are 2.5 – 3 times better than today’s worldwide rotorcraft fleet.

Drone Delivery Canada ‘DDC or the Company’ (TSX.V:FLT,OTC: TAKOF), is pleased to announce that it has commenced testing its newest cargo delivery drone, ‘The Falcon’ with a lifting capability of 50 pounds of payload and a travel range of 60km.

“In response to market demand driven by the burgeoning e-commerce industry, our engineering team was given the task of building out our fleet of cargo drones to address the need for a multi-package payload compartment solution which is applicable in many different geographies. The Falcon is the newest edition to DDC’s fleet and meets this particular niche which is being requested by DDC’s customers.”, commented Tony Di Benedetto, CEO.

The Falcon has been in development for almost a year and has received approvals from Transport Canada to commence testing within Southern Ontario. The Falcon is the big brother to DDC’s Sparrow which is based on an electric propulsion system.

“Our engineering team is very proud of the development and approvals now for the Falcon. We continue to push the envelope in building bigger, larger cargo capabilities within our drone fleet of vehicles.”, commented Paul Di Benedetto, CTO.

The Falcon has a wing span of approximately 12 feet and is anticipated to travel 60 km at a speed of 50 km/ hr. The multi-package payload compartment is designed to carry approximately 5 cubic feet of cargo and will be weather resistant.

This incident is being thoroughly investigated by Airbus’ experts who have taken immediate and appropriate actions to reinforce existing security measures and to mitigate its potential impact, as well as determining its origins.

Investigations are ongoing to understand if any specific data was targeted, however we do know some personal data was accessed. This is mostly professional contact and IT identification details of some Airbus employees in Europe.

The company is in contact with the relevant regulatory authorities and the data protection authorities pursuant to the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Airbus employees are being advised to take all necessary precautions going forward.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) today unveiled the next steps in the evolution of cellular IoT and launched new solutions that will enable service providers to address a larger part of the IoT market with diverse use cases across verticals including automotive, manufacturing, and utilities.

In line with its cellular IoT vision, Ericsson is launching enhanced functionalities for Massive IoT* and new solutions for Broadband IoT. One example of Massive IoT enhancement is the NB-IoT Extended Cell Range 100km, which stretches the standards-based limit from around 40km to 100km through software updates without changes to existing NB-IoT devices. This opens huge opportunities in IoT connectivity in rural and remote areas, particularly for logistics, agriculture and environment monitoring. Ericsson has deployed NB-IoT data connections up to 100km with Telstra and DISH.

The Broadband IoT solutions being launched include drone detection and link control, radio access network (RAN) slicing, Advanced Subscriber Group Handling, and Multi-Gigabit LTE for 2Gbps data throughput and around 10 millisecond latency. The new solutions will enable a wide range of use cases in automotive, drones, AR/VR, advanced wearables, smart manufacturing, and smart utilities.

Fredrik Jejdling, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks, Ericsson, says: “Cellular IoT is moving from early adoption with Massive IoT to global rollout. We are now describing ‘what’s next?’ for our customers and how they can make the most out of their 4G and 5G investments on the same network and address more advanced IoT use cases across industries.”

Evolving cellular IoT

Ericsson’s evolution concept describes how cellular IoT can move from the more basic use cases of Massive IoT such as asset tracking and smart metering to increasingly sophisticated use cases enabled by Broadband IoT (for example infotainment in cars, AR/VR, drones and advanced wearables), and then by Critical IoT (for example, autonomous vehicles), and Industrial Automation IoT (for example, collaborative robotics in manufacturing).

This stepwise approach will make it easier for service providers to match cellular IoT capabilities with current and future use cases by continuing to enhance LTE networks while preparing for 5G. With effective use of techniques such as network slicing, service providers can support all four segments in a single network, allowing them to optimize their assets and tap into revenue opportunities within industries. According to the Ericsson Mobility Report, the number of cellular IoT connections is expected to reach 4.1 billion in 2024 – increasing with an annual growth rate of 27 percent.

Patrick Filkins, Senior Research Analyst, IoT and Mobile Network Infrastructure at IDC, says: “Ericsson has come up with a uniquely clear vision for cellular IoT with well-defined segments for service providers to address new business growth opportunities from industry digitalization. Ericsson’s cellular IoT evolution concept will support service providers to incrementally allow add-on use cases even within a single vertical.”

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YouTube channel FliteTest has released a new video in which they design, build and test a real-life version of Thor’s famous hammer, Mjölnir. Thor is the chiselled Norse god of thunder as well as the star of more Marvel movies than you can shake a giant flying hammer at. Those familiar with his character will know […]

Researchers at Yale University have developed a UAV which uses nature-inspired robotic talons to “perch and rest” in places that would normally be inaccessible. The group, led by Kaiyu Hang, were looking to make drones that fly in a more energy efficient manner. They observed how birds and bats use structures to conserve their energy when […]

Today Kickstarter is hosting the launch of a new mind-controlled drone and headset. Chinese company EEGSmart have developed brain-machine interface (BMI) technology which they intend to market to the masses through their UDrone mini-quad and UMind Lite headset. A year ago we brought you a story about drones you can control with your mind on display […]

President Donald Trump’s administration has reversed an Obama era policy requiring US intelligence services to report the number of civilians killed by American drones. On March 6, Trump signed an executive order revoking the requirement for intelligence agencies to publicly announce the number of non-combatants killed by US drone strikes or other attacks on terrorist […]

Engineers who run a ‘drone hacking’ website say that software designed to prevent drones from flying near airports is very easy to bypass. Drone producers, such as Chinese giant DJI, produce UAVs with inbuilt geofencing software which creates ‘virtual walls’ stopping crafts from being able to enter restricted air space near airports or military bases. There […]

The world’s largest agricultural drone fleet is transforming the way farmers manage their crops. Through a collaboration with Corteva Agriscience™, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont, DroneDeploy’s advanced mapping software is powering Corteva Agriscience’s fleet of more than 400 DJI drones across the company’s global teams, including:

Spanning three continents, DroneDeploy’s Live Map technology provides Corteva Agriscience’s UAV fleet of DJI drones with immediate insights to diagnose and correct agronomic, disease, and pest concerns, as well as to suggest locations for optimal product placement.

Agriculture may be as old as civilization itself, but thanks to new technologies that make it easier to monitor crops and maximize yields, the industry remains on the cutting edge. In less than 15 minutes, advanced UAV technology can survey a 160-acre field to identify variations in plant soil and health, giving farmers direct access to real-time aerial views and data to help make informed agronomic decisions. The result is a full-scale drone operation that gives agronomists and contract seed growers the ability to make timely determinations that directly impact seed yields and quality.

DroneDeploy’s Live Map technology provides real-time crop insights that enable growers to take immediate agronomic actions in the field. Whether it’s identifying an area that lacks irrigation or a particular crop that’s sprouting better (or worse) than expected, agricultural UAVs enable farmers to course correct issues through powerful, data-driven insights. Once drone fleets are ready to be deployed to field teams, drone operators undergo training to determine how to harness the power of aerial technology and ensure that operations adhere to local aviation regulations.

Utilizing UAVs developed by DJI, the collaboration between Corteva Agriscience and DroneDeploy brings some of the world’s most powerful agriscience solutions together with the world’s leading commercial drones and commercial drone software. Corteva Agriscience’s portfolio of products includes some of the world’s most recognizable brands in agriculture, including Pioneer, Brevant seeds, and Encirca and Granular, as well as Crop Protection products developed through active chemistry and technology.

DJI, the world leader in commercial and civilian drones, makes up more than 70% of the drone market and offers a wide variety of UAV products across many different industries. Combined with DroneDeploy’s user-friendly platform for real-time sharable drone maps and 3D models, farmers and agronomists across the globe will be able to carry out data-driven actions to keep fields full, healthy, and ready for seasons to come.

Where to Learn MoreLearn more about the improvements to the DroneDeploy Map Engine.Explore the DroneDeploy App Market to see more than 80 apps you can use today to generate insights with drone data.eBook: Drones in Agriculture

Be sure to read our latest eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Drones on the Farm.

In our previous post, we discuss the many ways you can begin using drones to improve inspections in the oil and gas sector. In this post, we take a look at the impact drones have on operations—and why it’s time you should consider investing in a drone program.

Drones provide O&G companies many benefits, including cost savings, improved communication, a safer work environment, and more accurate data. Read on to explore the key ways drones can transform your workflows.

Inspecting O&G infrastructure and gathering critical data with drones cost substantially less than traditional inspection methods that require ground crews or manned flights. Drones are tough birds and can withstand harsh temperatures and other conditions. They get much closer to infrastructure than a helicopter or airplane, providing better visuals and data. Drones also minimize downtime by avoiding the need to shut down operations for inspections and by catching leaks and other maintenance issues early, lowering remediation costs.

Drones enable employees to conduct inspection and monitoring tasks without exposing themselves to the typical dangers of O&G operations. As a result, work hours lost due to injuries decline, medical expenses and insurance costs shrink, and the number of workplace events reported to OSHA and other regulatory agencies drop.

Safer Work Environments

Manual infrastructure inspections are often dangerous. For example, inspectors at wells and offshore rigs must climb up and down ladders and along catwalks — and even use cranes or harnesses and rappelling equipment to reach equipment. Inspectors sometimes must work in close proximity to harmful chemicals and dangerous machinery.

Drones perform inspections without risking employee safety. They’re particularly useful for inspections after blowouts or natural disasters — or when sending a ground crew to a site may be difficult, costly or unsafe.

Better, More Accurate Data

Drones provide a flexible platform for a wide range of cameras and sensors. They can collect data needed for situations requiring real-time solutions or store data for later analysis. Businesses can easily integrate digitized mapping information and other data from drone flights into analytical and AI solutions for advanced processing. For example, software solutions use topographical and geological data gathered by drones to create models that help identify promising oil and gas drill sites.

Not only do drones gather information more efficiently than human inspectors, the digital data enables employees to make better, data-driven decisions. This drastically reduces downtime, catches conflicts and issues faster, and helps keep your operation running like the well-oiled machine that it is.

Superior Communication

The remote nature of oil and gas work often requires operators to communicate with workers on sites around the world. This can present a challenge to managers and engineers working from the headquarters and collaborating with the boots on the ground. But drones can make things easier. Workers on the ground can fly drones on their site and upload the data to the cloud where back office managers can review and coordinate further inspection or follow ups — all without leaving the desk chair. Using software such as DroneDeploy makes it easy for the back office to markup maps or drop in annotations in real time so that inspectors can check on pressure points, leaks, or other potential issues.

Where to Learn More

The latest drone technology — like aerial mapping, thermal imaging, and digital terrain modeling — gives you a rich set of data to streamline your workflows and generate real-time insights.

A free guide to measuring stockpiles and gathering accurate inventory counts with UAVs.

Whether you work in the construction, mining, or aggregates sectors, stockpile management is a critical requirement on any job site. But measuring stockpiles can be unsafe, time-consuming, and expensive. This puts you in a difficult position. You need accurate data to run your business operations, but you shouldn’t have to send your survey team into the field for hours to clamber across stockpiles on a dangerous job site.

What if you could gather the same survey data in minutes from the safety of the ground, all while achieving higher accuracy and freeing up your survey team to focus on other high-priority projects? Sound too good to be true? Nope. Drones can help.

While you may be familiar with drone photography, drones are also a trusted tool for surveying and measurement. They eliminate many of the challenges companies face with traditional survey solutions. And drones paired with powerful photogrammetry software from DroneDeploy can help lower your data collection costs, increase accuracy, save you time, and keep your team out of harm’s way — all without having to hire an entire survey team or invest in expensive laser or lidar hardware.

“Everyone should be using drones for stockpile analysis. It’s miles ahead of standard surveying.” — Tecia White, President at Whitewater Hydrogeology Ltd.Read the full case study

Over the last 4 years, our team has worked with thousands of customers measuring stockpiles with drones. In that time, we’ve learned the techniques that produce highly-accurate results that our customers expect from DroneDeploy.

In our latest eBook, we take a deep dive into the stockpile measurement workflow using DroneDeploy—covering best practices and answers to the most frequently asked questions from our customers.

The best practices for flying, processing, and analyzing stockpiles with DroneDeployHow to get precise volume measurements and generate instant stockpile reportsHow to achieve high degrees of measurement accuracy and why it mattersThe most common app integrations for stockpile management used by DroneDeploy customersHow three innovative companies have used DroneDeploy’s stockpile measurement tools to cut costs, save time, and improve safety on their job sitesWhere to Learn More

Some of the largest oil and gas companies around the world now deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), better known as drones, to address a wide variety of operational challenges. This rapidly improving technology, along with advances in big data and artificial intelligence, is poised to transform the O&G industry in the coming years.

The aerial intelligence provided by drones offers several key benefits, including safer inspections and helping companies comply with regulatory requirements — while saving them millions of dollars in labor, remediation, and other costs.

Drones are the perfect solution for conducting visual inspections of infrastructure and gathering extensive data. An increasing number of O&G companies use drones to perform three basic industry functions — pipeline inspection and monitoring, oil well and rig inspection, and surveying and construction monitoring — at a significantly lower cost than ground, manned aircraft or helicopter inspection crews.

Read on to learn more about the leading uses of drones in the oil and gas sector.

Pipeline Inspection and Monitoring

By taking photos and videos of above-ground pipelines, drones allow inspectors in the field or engineers in a remote location to view pipes, either in real time or later. The operator can zero in on areas of concern to gather additional information and, if necessary, recommend that a ground crew visually check the area.

By examining the vegetation index, inspectors can identify specific areas of concern with DroneDeploy, catching leaks before they spread. Read the case study.

To detect potential underground leaks, drones take photos along pipeline routes. User-friendly software from DroneDeploy combines these images, creating high-resolution vegetation maps that identify plant kill-off zones, which may indicate a leak. Equipping a drone with an infrared camera provides an additional way to inspect pipelines: Thermal imagery of pipeline routes reveal hotspots, which may indicate potential defects in pipeline insulation or leaks invisible to the human eye.

Drone images also detect anomalies along a pipeline network or any encroachments, such as construction or roadwork, on a right-of-way that could threaten the integrity of the pipeline. In case of significant leaks, explosions or other emergency situations, drones provide real-time video to help emergency response teams assess the situation before sending in crews.

An operator inspects an oil well using drone POV goggles, while remaining safely on the ground. Photo courtesy of Bruin E&P Partners.Oil Well and Rig Inspection

O&G companies also use drones to photograph oil wells and offshore rigs throughout the initial drilling process. Once the well is operating, drones efficiently monitor operations. For example, they provide a close-up look at a flare stack while it’s in service. That provides a real benefit to the traditional approach: shutting down the flare system and assigning an inspector to climb the stack to examine it. In this case, a drone inspection saves weeks of physical inspection preparation and avoids significant loss of productivity and revenue due to an operational shutdown.

This drone-generated 3D model of oil storage tanks replaced helicopter imagery and saved $3500 over a five-month period. Read the full case study.

Drone inspections help companies prevent health and safety events (HSE), allowing them to address operational issues without sending employees into dangerous zones. Drones also provide easy surveillance of remote or hard-to-reach assets, such as storage tanks.

Drones are taking on an expanding role in both the oil exploration and construction stages.2 They survey prospective drilling locations and gather key data without the time and expense of traditional surveying methods. Once a well site is ready for development, drones deployed during the construction stage of wells, rigs, pipelines and refineries conduct crucial as-built surveys, allowing managers to keep track of a project’s progress and provide quality assurance of the build-outs.

Construction compliance officers use drone photos to compare actual conditions to pre-construction designs, as well as to detect and correct plan defects and deviations and spot any potential safety issues. This information also helps streamline decision-making throughout the project. Companies can even create, document and share a visual timeline with all stakeholders. Once construction is finished, drones provide a digital 3-D representation of structures to use as a baseline reference.

This orthomosaic drone map shows construction progress taking place on a well site. Map courtesy of Bruin E&P Partners.

Drones provide extremely precise aerial intelligence that simplifies and improves a wide range of O&G processes. Whether inspecting hundreds of miles of oil pipelines for leaks, helping employees keep operations in compliance with regulations or enabling companies to construct infrastructure more efficiently, agile and flexible UAVs have quickly become a go-to tool for operators around the world.

Product Release Wrap-Up January 2019Kick off the New Year with improved accuracy and AI tools from DroneDeploy

Since launching the Projects interface last month, our team has been busy implementing a series of new features to improve your team’s productivity and overall map accuracy in 2019.

Read on to learn more about new automated flight settings, map alignment capabilities, Autodesk export options, and a suite of AI tools now available to DroneDeploy customers.

The Joy of aligned maps in action over the course of a project.Align Maps Over Time — Instantly.

Comparing maps over time is one of the most common uses of DroneDeploy. But comparing the same areas can be tricky if the maps don’t line up. Unfortunately, GPS accuracy varies and maps of the same location can shift anywhere between 5–10 meters without the use of ground control points (GCPs).

To overcome this problem, we built a new solution into our proprietary Map Engine to align new maps with those previously made at the same location. As an added benefit, the absolute accuracy and scale of a map made with GCPs will improve the accuracy of future maps in the same area — meaning you can map more often with less effort and still get great results.

Use map alignment in conjunction with the “Side-by-Side” app, to see how things have changed on your site.

Automatic Map Alignment is now available to all paying DroneDeploy customers.

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Filter and Sort Map Annotations

Have you ever had trouble finding the annotation or measurement that you’re looking for in a map with dozens or even hundreds of annotations? Or perhaps you’ve wanted to hide specific annotations and focus on those that are most important? New improvements to DroneDeploy annotations make both of these tasks possible.

Now you can view a list of all of the annotations on your map. You can then select or hide specific annotations, and you can even use the search and filter tools to look for specific annotations or annotation types.

Filter annotations by measurement type using the filter icon on the dashboard.Simplify GCP Tagging with Ground Control AI

For those times when absolute accuracy is required, efficient use of GCPs and checkpoints for mapping is extremely important. For the last six months, thanks to thousands of DroneDeploy customers tagging GCPs, we’ve trained our machine learning algorithms to automatically identify and geolocate the most popular types of GCP markers automatically.

Here are a few examples of the types of GCP markers that DroneDeploy can now detect and geolocate to save you time:

If some, or all of your GCPs are automatically identified, you’ll get a notification in the typical email workflow. You will notice that many of your GCPs are already tagged when you open the link.

Ground Control AI will continue to improve as you use it, and will learn from your corrections over time.

Once GCPs have been detected, you can finish selecting any additional GCPs that may be in the map.

Ground Control AI is now available to all Business and Enterprise customers.

Detect and Annotate Objects with Count AI

We launched our Counting tool last August. Since then, customers have annotated more than 360,000 objects. Uses include auditing solar panels, asset quantification, damage assessments, crop yield estimation, and more. With a significant amount of counting data under our belts, our team can now rapidly train our counting algorithms to detect and count custom objects for our enterprise customers.

Select an area and Count AI does the rest.

The first two object types we are supporting are cars and trees, but if your workflow requires counting any object series in your maps, sign up for our beta program today and contact your DroneDeploy Account Manager to learn more about this new feature.

Measuring stockpiles on construction sites, mines, and quarries is one of the most common use of DroneDeploy’s measurement tools. To speed up the stockpile measurement workflow, we developed our Stockpile AI assistant to annotate and measure stockpile volumes with a single click.

When you select the Stockpile AI icon, DroneDeploy will detect and highlight all stockpiles present on your map. You can then generate an instant volume measurement by selecting the stockpile you wish to measure. It’s that easy.

Once the volume annotation is created, it’s still possible to customize the stockpile boundary as you usually would. Keep in mind that like our other machine learning tools, your existing annotations and corrections power Stockpile AI — which will continue to improve the more you use it.

Stockpile AI is now available to all Enterprise customers.

Import Point Clouds from DroneDeploy to AutoDesk

Our construction customers have frequently asked to import drone-generated point clouds from DroneDeploy to AutoDesk Civil 3D, Revit, and Navisworks. We’re happy to announce this capability is now available in DroneDeploy.

To directly import your point cloud files to AutoDesk, choose the AutoDesk (.rcp) format when you export your next point cloud. The .rcp data will also include a .rcs point cloud as well. These new point cloud formats can be exported using all the local and custom coordinate systems we support for existing exports.